


and the stars shine on

by Pterodactyl



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: M/M, Post TROS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:28:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22121821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pterodactyl/pseuds/Pterodactyl
Summary: finn and poe have a moment alone after returning to ajan kloss.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Finn
Comments: 18
Kudos: 235





	and the stars shine on

Time seems to move so fast once the Falcon touches down on Ajan Kloss that Finn barely notices the sun setting until more lights are strung up so that those who returned can continue working. Between frantic reunions, heartbreak at those who didn’t make it back and sheer, unadulterated joy for everyone who _survived_ , he barely gets a moment to sit down until the sun is well below the horizon. Finn’s not completely sure who it was who suggested breaking out the sunfruit liquor, but he wouldn’t be surprised if Lando had something to do with it, and he’s certainly not going to lift a hand to stop them. Rey slips away shortly before the sun falls, hands intertwined tightly with Rose as they walk towards the silent General’s quarters. Finn doesn’t try and stop her. She hasn’t yet had a moment to bid farewell to Leia. He won’t interrupt her time to grieve, not with things that can wait until morning. Besides, he has too much to do.

As the evening presses on and the atmosphere lends itself more towards celebration than organisation, Finn finds himself wandering out of the main collection of buildings and laughter, away towards the edge of the base. He passes small groups of people clustered together, most celebrating, some sitting in reflectful silence, a few shedding silent tears over someone they lost. Most share a nod or a smile with him, but as he reaches the edge of what had become their home for the past year, he finds himself alone. Before him stretches hundreds of ships he doesn’t know, even more out of sight, sitting empty as those who came to their aid join in the celebrations behind him. 

There’s an old model X-wing sitting crooked on a small knoll, and Finn places his cup of mostly untouched liquor on the dented metal. He plants his foot on a knot of vegetation, and with a few hops pulls himself up to sit on the nose, closing his eyes and breathing in the cooling night air.

Even with nobody around, he can still hear faint voices drifting over the sea of empty ships and fighters. It’s good to still hear them, good to know they’re there, but right now the quiet is what he needs. Beneath the jubilation and the relief is a deep, bone-aching exhaustion, one that comes from days without adequate sleep and nothing but fear and anticipation during the few hours of rest he managed to grab. He knows the war is over, but as the night stretches on his thoughts turn to those who didn’t make it back. To those who never made it to the battle in the first place. 

Finn stares up into the sky, into a thousand blinking stars, and lifts his cup in a silent salute.

There’s a soft chirp from below his feet, and he looks down to see the familiar shape of BB-8 rolling out of the undergrowth. 

“Hey, buddy,” Finn says, leaning forwards, “You bring me a message?”

The droid chirps a warbling line of binary again, and Finn catches ‘ _friend-Poe’_ and ‘ _urgent conversation’_ before the sound of snapping plant life and a loud curse alerts him to the imminent arrival of one General Dameron.

“First item of action for tomorrow is take a flamethrower to this,” Poe says as he unnecessarily pushes aside a tuft of grass, “Damn hazard to my health.”

Finn laughs, leaning his elbows on his knees. “BB-8 says you have urgent information for me.”

“The urgent information is that I had to walk through half a jungle to find my co-commander.” Poe plants his good hand on his hip and squints up at Finn. “Are you slacking off?”

Finn tips his cup in Poe’s direction. “Are you?”

“Point taken.” Poe plants his hand on the nose of the X-wing. “Hold on, I’m coming up.”

He jumps with a soft “ _hup_ ,” and pushes himself up about a half-foot before losing momentum, falling back to the ground and groaning in defeat. Finn snorts, receiving a sharp glare in his direction from the man stranded below him. 

“You just gonna watch me struggle?” Poe says indignantly, gesturing to his bandaged arm. “Me? Your injured co-general?”

Finn rolls his eyes, puts his cup down and extends his hand. “Come on.”

Poe takes it with a slight narrowing of his eyes, and with Finn’s other hand gripping his wrist and an indignant beep from BB-8 as Poe’s boot clangs on its casing, he’s hauled up onto the X-wing. Finn loops his arm under Poe’s, gripping the back of his shirt while he gets his footing to make sure the General doesn’t topple right back off and bust his other arm.

“Whew,” Poe huffs, settling down beside Finn with a thump that shifts the X-wing just a little. “Did you sit up here just to get away from me?”

“You think I’d tell you if I did?” Finn jabs. Poe’s sat so close to him that their legs are pressed together, hip to knee on the narrow nose of the fighter. It’s just barely large enough for two people, but Finn’s not going to move, and Poe doesn’t seem inclined to either. 

“Credit for your thoughts?” Poe asks, shifting so their shoulders brush. He’s shed the outer layer of his flight suit, tied it untidily around his waist, and Finn can feel the warmth of his arm through the material of his shirt. The moon lights the shapes of the scenery around them, haunting and beautiful, but all Finn can look at is the man before him.

“What?” he says, partially because he was busy thinking about the way the starlight shines on the angles of Poe’s face.

“Credit for your thoughts,” Poe repeats, brows drawing together. “You know, the saying?”

Finn cultivates a blank expression, shakes his head.

“You don’t know the saying? Come on, of course you know the - credit for your thoughts? Like, a credit for you to tell me what you’re thinking?”

He extends his hand, palm up.

“No, not literally,” Poe says, patting the legs of his flight suit with his good hand as he searches for the nonexistent currency. It brushes Finn’s thigh, leaving a blaze of heat in its trace. “I - I don’t have a credit -”

Finn can’t maintain the facade any more, and laughs at the sheer confusion on Poe’s face as it morphs into understanding. “You’re messing with me.”

“I’m messing with you,” he grins, and BB-8 chirps something that Finn roughly translates to _drink makes friend-Poe stupid_.

“Okay, BB-8, how about you go check in on Rey, huh?” Poe says loudly and pointedly, “Make sure she’s okay. And that’s an order.”

BB-8 whirrs, rolls in a circle and beeps _talk to friend-Finn_ as pointedly as a droid can before it trundles away.

“Damn droid’s getting an attitude,” Poe mutters, “Spending too much time with Rey.”

“Come on, BB-8 had an attitude long before meeting Rey,” Finn says, grinning. “Wonder where it got that from.”

“Not from me, that’s for certain,” Poe says, reaching over. Before Finn can properly understand what he’s doing, Poe swipes the cup from his hand and takes a sip.

“Hey,” he says mildly, “That’s mine.”

“We’re co-commanders,” Poe says, taking another drink as he holds eye contact, eyes half-lidded. “What’s mine is yours and such.”

Finn feels blood rush to his face, but he holds Poe’s gaze. He’s waiting for something, though he’s not sure what, but he doesn’t find it as Poe looks back down at the cup, his lashes casting shadows down on his cheeks. Finn turns away, looking back up at the stars and waiting for the cool air to ease the relentless quickening of his heart. “What’s the urgent conversation you needed to have with me then, General?”

“Maybe I just needed a break from the crowd,” Poe says, but there’s a twist at the corner of his mouth that Finn knows. There’s something he’s not saying.

“Don’t make me call BB-8 back,” he says, only partly meaning it. This draws a small smile from Poe’s lips, but only for a moment before it’s replaced with a frown again. Finn lets the silence take over, waiting for Poe to speak.

“I really thought I was going to lose you today,” Poe says, “When Rose said you weren’t on the transport. I really thought that was it.”

His words make some unnameable emotion ache in Finn’s chest, but he forces his voice to stay light. “You think I’d go down that easy?”

Poe doesn’t smile. “And with the way we left things on Kef Bir - I just need you to know that I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?” Finn echoes, “Sorry for what?”

“For what I said and the way I said it. I just -”

“Come on, Poe, we both said things we didn’t mean,” Finn interrupts, “Hell, I said you were no General Organa, and then you won us the war.”

“First of all, _we_ won the war,” Poe says, and then shakes his head. “It’s not that. I… I know you and Rey have - you have something I don’t, and I… I can’t compete with that.”

“What?” Finn feels like he’s been yanked back in time. “Poe, I told you, Rey and I are just -”

“Friends, I know, that’s not what I mean.” Poe places the cup down, shaking his head. “You have _something_. And sometimes I just get… I don’t know. Jealous.”

“Poe.” Finn reaches out and grabs the back of his neck, just like Poe had only hours earlier, pulling him in so their foreheads press together. “We have something. You think we would have made it this far together if we didn’t? _We_ have something.”

Poe reaches up and does the same to him, his hand warm against Finn’s skin, eyes closed. For a moment they just sit there, alone together in the quiet, until Poe huffs a sigh and releases Finn, his fingertips trailing over his neck. He takes another sip of liquor but doesn’t seem to taste it. “I still should have gone with you to the Death Star.”

“You would have hated it.” Finn nudges him, trying to raise the mood. “A lot of bones.”

Poe shudders visibly but continues, his voice earnest. “Still. It wasn’t right.”

“What good would it have done for you to be there?” Finn says, exasperated, “To get wet and be thrown around? Poe, we needed someone on the Falcon or we would have been stranded there for Force knows how long.”

“Maybe, but I still shouldn’t have let you go alone.”

“I wasn’t alone.” Finn hears his frustration seep into his voice. “Jannah was with me. And you know I can handle myself. We knew what we were getting into.”

“But I should’ve gone with you!” Poe exclaims, “Ren was there, Finn, he could have killed you, or worse -”

“But he _didn’t_ , Poe, I don’t know what you want me to say!”

“If I had lost you on then? Or on Exogol? If I never said I was sorry? Explained myself? I couldn’t live with that. Finn, I -” Poe fumbles placing the cup down and overturns it, but doesn’t seem to notice as he gestures between them, “I just need you to know that I - that you -”

Finn places his hand on Poe’s cheek impulsively, and he jolts in surprise. For half a second Finn starts to pull back, but then Poe covers Finn’s hand with his, turning his face into it. His lips brush Finn’s palm, his eyes dark and beautiful in the moonlight as he looks up at him. “Finn, I…”

“I know,” Finn says softly, “I know.”

And somehow at this moment he does know. He knows this moment has been building for months, he knows that his heart has never beat this fast for anyone but Rey but it’s _different_ , it’s a different kind of ache in his chest and burn in his throat. But beyond all that, beyond everything else, he _knows_ that Poe feels the same way.

And with that, kissing him feels as natural as breathing.

Poe’s hand is rough and warm on his own face. His nose brushes Finn’s cheek, and in that moment Finn swears they could be the only two people in the whole galaxy. Poe touches Finn like he’s the most precious thing in the universe, like he has to make up for every second they’ve spent apart and every second they might in the future. Finn wraps his arms around Poe’s shoulders, fingers pressing into his hair, stiff with dirt and the Kef Bir sea wind, like if he holds him tight enough the moment will never end.

But it does, because a loud chirp from below Finn’s feet alerts him to the presence of BB-8 once more. 

Poe pulls away with a startled inhale, cursing under his breath. “BB-8, what the - you are interrupting a _moment,_ buddy -”

 _Friend-Rey wants to talk_ , BB-8 says, rolling in a little circle in the flattened grass. Poe runs a hand through his hair, neatening it, and Finn gets a small thrill from knowing it was his fingers who made the mess in the first place.

“Rey wants to talk?” Poe glances at him, and Finn shrugs. Poe’s hand comes to rest on his leg as he leans down towards BB-8, and the touch makes something in Finn’s heart swell. “About what?”

BB-8 whistles a little nonsense tune which Finn has come to know means _find out yourself_.

“When the Jedi asks, we answer,” Finn says, and hops off the nose of the X-wing, landing with a thump just in front of BB-8 and offering out his hand. “General?”

Poe looks at him with a mix of naked adoration and indignance that Finn thinks he needs help that he can’t help but laugh as Poe follows, landing slightly unevenly and grabbing the outstretched hand anyway.

 _Follow_ , BB-8 beeps, and begins to roll away.

Poe gives him a _look,_ half amusement and half irritation. “Well,” he says, “Duty calls.”

“It does,” Finn says, and yet they don’t move.

“I’m starting to regret accepting the post of General.” Poe tugs on Finn’s hand, pulling him closer until they’re chest to chest. Finn smiles, rolling his eyes. “No you’re not.”

“You’re right.” Poe’s lips brush his. “I’m not.”

 _Friend-Poe! Friend-Finn!_ BB-8 says indignantly from a distance, _follow!_

“Alright, buddy, alright!” Poe steps away and starts after the droid, “You can’t let me have a damn second, huh?”

Finn lets himself be tugged along, Poe’s hand held tightly in his. He looks up at the stars, listens to Poe and BB-8 bicker, and _knows_ deep in his bones that this is right where he’s meant to be.

**Author's Note:**

> whoever came up with bb-8 calling everyone "friend-[name]" is a fucking genius. i did not come up with that and all credits to them.  
> thanks for reading this all started because i wanted to write finn teasing poe about the bones on the death star and then ended up writing them talking about feelings.  
> happy first star wars fic to me! hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
